Rack-stitch rib-knitting machine.



. PATBNTED JUNE 19, l1906. W. STAFFORD an me. H oLT. RACK STITCH` RIBKNITTINGMACHINB.

No.l 323,818.

' APPLICATION PILE) DLo.29,'A19o4. K fs sHEETs-sHEET-z.

\ N0.s23',818. 'y PATBNTEDJUNEIQ, 1906.

I WSTAAIPORD IDIIILIIOLT.A

I lRACK STITCH RIB KNITTING MACHINE.

IPPLIQATION FILED DB0.29, 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Illllll I 'PATENT 'OFFI`on4 .'WALTnRfsTrAFFoi-DMAND ROBERT .oHRIs'ioPHERHonnon LiTTLE t FALLsgNnwYoRm amenable.

y,l/i*'CK-jsTi-T/GHImis-KNiTTliac-i. MACHINE...

' Patented June 19, 1906.

' and ROERT 'CHRisToPHERVHoLL citizens of the United States, residingatLittle Falls, in

vthecounty of IHerkimer and State. of New York, have invented'certainnew'and useful Improvements-in Rack-Stitch RibKnitting i Machines, ofwhich the yfollowing is a specifi.; `cation, reference being hadVtherein tothe acs compaiiying drawings.

Our invention 'relates to an `improvement Y in.knitting-machines, and wedo declare that the followin is a ull, clear,=.concise, and eX- loneskilled in the art to makeand Ause the' same, reference beinghad tothe-accompany` ingvdrawings., in which 'like letters and nu-` meralsrefer -to like partslthroughout,

Our invention is shown in the "drawings aS applied to a circularmachine. It has yto do with the'shifting of-certain needles relatively lgto othersby which the stitch or character of the fabric may bechan edyat will tomakef for'instance, what is wcal ed ai ffrack-stitch This weaccomplish automatically by prearl ranged ,pattern mechanism. ,Theconstruc- .tion which we `show alsofhas the, advantage of leaving theneedleslargely.'exposed withf lont being held throughout in grooves, soas ,3

to beeaslly cleaned, andit also has thegmini- ,mum `of frictionv ontheneedles.v l Italsohai the advantage that while certain parts of the Yneedle-'dialare changed it vin no wise`inter` ,fereswith the useoffloth'er members not` shown, which the operator may .wish to employ.

' operation,

. Other fdevicesfhave 'heeft lmade which are;` ableto do certain partsofthe workof our im-iv provenient, biit'we enlargethe field ofsuchdevices `and ir'iripliwk"F their yconstru ctionfI and i yMf'ichiriesare-.wherein the-dial-plate 'is "composed of ,parts having therebetween'rackingE-gides, thedivisionof the dial-plate into.- anllla'rPartshavinginoadvantage, but

.. .being necessary to @Months-.insertion '0f the .-rwking-sidesl; Thesegde's, .howverfpre f vx vidi?.v .for racking the needles in onedirection y only; 'Wefdo away. with; this cumbersome v construction br"employing parte,v of the dialplate fonracking..thegneedles, using a.con- .y struction which. `the needles to be "..recked in ehidiftion-Itfivlllb@ Seen,

zzofFig. 1.

.. plate show a construction Which minimizes the .rictionon theneedlesduring their play when 'certain only of the needles can bevracked we show-:L construction wherein each or any of theneedle-racking sections may be'movedas the' feeds ive the yarn toAtheneedles to be e .e show in the drawings a machine l in Whicheach'section of the dial-needles-may be racked. when no work isdone bythose neeact descriptlon thereof sufficient lto enable.

racked.

further., thatthey'can belracked a greater or .less distance, as may bedesired. We also dles, (the yarn-feeds and the operating-cams,

- which are adjacent thereto, beingover a different SectiOn,) inreadiness for the coming. of the feeds and .cams in the revolution ofthe cam-plate and its 'supportedpa'rts' `By* this.

construction a garment may have 'the racki stitch throughout or only incer-tainparts.`

g 4In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view oi.'

a machine, showing. the circular frame orbed#A plate, V therevolvingcam-plajte just within/it partl cut away and still within parts ofthe.

needl e-dial with partj-o'f certain needles. and indicating betweenthetips of; somev of them the location ofthe cylinder-needlesnthe top ofthe cylinder cam-rmg .appearing justl within. Fig. l is a detail ofpartof the needle-1 dial. Fig. 2 is aside View, partl in section, V.showin thev cylinder shaft, cy inder, bedplate, ial-plate, anddial'cam-ring, .together with other ordinary partsand parts of ourdevice. 3 is a side view on the other side of er-shaft from the partshown in Fig.

,f '2 an also another p/artof onr device. Fi .4

is a detail plan view of certain parts of our e-A vice on line :c a: yofFig. 2. Fig. litis-a bottom'.

view. of the member? shown iii-Fig. 2 showing a` modified construction.fFig; 5- is' a cross-section view.l of the same parts on line yay-'ofFig.. 1,'and Fig.' 6is a like view on lineber shown in Fig. 31

. Referring to the iguresin detail, 'ifi'.reipri:`

sents the legs of the machine supporting the annular frame or bed 'Bvand carrying shaft C port t e cylinder-shaftH. Cylinder I,'with Fig.A 7is a vface view of a mem- IOO needle-grooves i and needles/b", supportedf on the shaft H, resting on washer I and is 4held against turning bysome well-known means, while the cylinder cam-ring J is rturned by theshaft H.v These parts are of well-known construction and arrangement asthegoove means-andthe racking means in v usual type extendingsubstantially the lengthy als , Sufficient s ace provide lands lc8L to alow fre'e lay ofthe needles even d? the lands are slightly. 3 swung,'being sospaced as to allow for the slight narrowing of the interspacewhen they .landsareswun from the true radial line of of lands and whicthe needles are freeto bend or swing and the least possible sidefriction exists in reci rocating the needles. furt er improvement ofhaving the lands lc, the spacing of which rovides' therebetween thegrooves kb, pivota ly mounted, as shown at k, so that as the latch endof the needles are racked the direction of the groove is correspondinglychanged. This vobviates entirely the side'strain on theneedles and anyvariation of the chord length of the needles by their curvature.` Theneedles are of the of lands 7c?, with heels to been aged by the cams onthe cam-plate, where y they are thrust to and fro, although the needlesare not all shown.v with the heel' ortion in full.

when the needles an the dial. The u nction ofthe lands kf* is to permittheneedles to swin slightly in the racking process without ben in Thelands lcv are mounted toV swing on t e upper surface ofringK. In Fig. lwe show'fa modified form of such construction, where Ka-shows asector-like 'late adapted to be'pivotally mounted on ed-plate and whichcomprlses a plurality ooves of such number as may be deslred, t eselpartsbeing duplicated as needed. The dial cam-plate F is of annularform.l and'rests above rin K, being provided with cams le to engaget eheels of the needles and actuate them. The dial-plate also 1 comprisesan inner ring divided inthis in stance -diametrically into parts L andL', whlch have enough s ace between their ends, sov that each can e s idon the bed to dispose the latch end of the dial-needles one way or theother relatively to the cylinder-needles and the desired distance. Theseparts of the dlal do not have the needle-grooves usually provided, buttheir surface 1s for themost the same purpose.

We show the between the i part lane. Near ,the inner edge, however, arep aced blocks Z Fig. 1, which are cut away on each side, leaving anarrow face or an edge, which, with that of the block on the other sideof the needle, provides means for holding and for moving the needlelaterally, but not having any substantial frictionsurface norpreventinglthe swingin or bending of the needles. nstead oi tie blockspins may be inserted in the rin to answer The inner edge of parts L andL are finished in usual manner, so as to provide for ordinary parts ofsuch a machine. To hold the needles in proper horizontal plane on dialparts' L and L', we provide curved strip M, which is su ported -abovethem, in this case from the fee -guides N. These feed-guides, it may benoted, are placed adjacent to the cams which actuate the dial-needles,and it will be assumed that a suitable number are employed and that themachine is provided with the usual yarn supporting and distributingparts, which are so well known that they need not be shown. The strip Mmay, however, be omitted, and the depending mner edge of the cam-ringmayalone berelied upon to hold the needles down. On thelbed at asuitable point near its margin we mount dogs 1 and 2 on pivots la and 2,which each passes through the bed and there' supports its pinion 1b and2b, which ,mesh The dogs are seated at an angle to peach other,substantially as shown.

lower end of pivot l is iixed arm 3, thou h it may be made integral withpinion 1b. t will be seen that if degl is turned in it projects arm 3and dog2 and that when dog 2 is turned inward it turns arm 3 outward. Inshort, the reciprocation of dogs land 2 swings the armS-in and out. 4 isa bell-crank pivotally mountedat 4 on the bed-plate. One end ispivotally engaged .by link 5, the other end of which is ivotally mountedon arm. The

other en of bell-crank 4 has a pin 4b, which` projectsthrough a slot 4in the bed and into .one of theparts' L or L ofthe dial-plate, therebeing a set of the parts above described for each movable part of thedial-plate. It is readily seen that the swinging of either dog 1 or 2slides the connected part of the dial-plate circum'ferentially on thebed. It is further seen that these sliding means are mounted one in eachslidable part and about the middle. The parts which operate the levers 1and 2 and the bell-crank 4 to shift or rack 'the needles are located soas to rack certain of the dial-needles only when they are idle, theknitting being then done by the other needles, whlch may or may not havealready been racked, according to the design o f the operator. Thus,supposing the camr1ng to be given a uarter-turn,in either di rection,Fig. 1, brac et 6 is in place to rack one segment of the inner portionof the dialplate, the knitting being then done by the On the IIO l,theyfeeds also being located to supply'those needles".y f

ogsjwe provide mechanism best shown 1n ig.y 2.v 6 is la bracket mountedon ythecam-plate and havin `an upward arm 6., thelouter face `0f which1s verti- ,cally grooved and fitted t'o receive and carry thevertically-moving arr-n?,V which has pin 7 projecting outwardly and ydog7b project- ;ing inwardly and oiay edetermined size for engaging oneor'the ot erof'th'e dogsl` and 2;

the connected part of the d i'al-.ring.`l This' "plane is determined byproper pattern mech.

anism, which comprises, ashere. shown, pat# .35.'

the 'a rticularsfshown;

dles, a cam-plate and cams, the sai dial-nee'- Instead of the dog 7b alcam-like disk 47" may be employed, Fig.'4 4*?, being adjustable on thearm "7' Aby .bolt 7d to thrust '.the arms 1 and 2 inward a eater or lessdistance, according to the positionof th'ecam-disk,fand rack the ffitingiven position.

bracket mounted on the frame or bed havinglupwardextension 9*. This Il'carries,j vertically. slidably mounted thereon, .dog 10, which-hasl atits u per endl the inward extension 1.0, the face o which is.

transversely grooved at 10", the groove-being widenedat one end 10, soas to engage p in 7.

when the revolution ofthe camring o r platev brings it tothat point andvdispose-do 7b in proper plane to engage'dog 1 vor 2 an slidetern-chainv 1l, attern-Wlieel 12 to carryfthe same, and s ma l wheel 13,which is mounted on the lower end of dog 10 to fraise or lowerl groovedextensidn 10 according to the links of the patternchain passingthereunder and which is caused to advance common .In operation thepattern mechanism fixes the plane'of dogl` 10 and groove 10b, which v fadjusts the plane of arm 7 and. dog 7 ,`whic`h" "turns dog '1 or 2 in,pulls out or us'hes in link 5, and correspondingly slides t 4e'.connected section .of 'dial-ring'. This' action racks the.-needlesthat'iafit carries the inner endlof the dial-needles thereinmounted each tofonel side or the other of its adjacent cylinder-v l Thedrawings show. but agiven form of our invention; but asmodifications'may be made without departing` from the spirit and` scopeof the invention we do not limit ourselves toavi [gde'scribed ourinvention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-v .1. In a prendrait-knittingmachine, (the combination 'ofa cylinderyneedlebed con.-` taining Acylinder-needles, a `.cam-ring `and cams,..ad1a lneedle bed containin dial-nee- `s ubstantia ly as descri ed.

. tor-like lands a `fixedly mounted and adapted to receive nee-- dlesandan inner annular member divided into segments each segment beingmovable.`

and havin [needle-en aging means thereon, 2. In combinationI lin acircular-knitting machine, a cylinder-'needle bed with needles,

a'cylinder cam-ring withcams for one; or

more feeds all fof the same being within one'- half the circumferenceofthe ring, a/dial-neevdlebed containing needles and com osed of twoannular plates one integral and t e otherI divided into segments, aldial cam-plate with cams to correspond Iwith the cams on the cyl-.-`.inder camring,'a bracket, a plunger adapted to move in thebracket toshift the segments needles accordingly.- A spring-pin'S, of comlmonform, is `I'nounted on arm 6'* in, contact. with arm 7 and havingsufficient force to hold of the said portion of the dial-plate, meansoperativeybetween'the plunger andthe diaL p ate for said purpose,substantially as shown.

3. Ina circular-knitting machine, a dialner annulark member? dividedinto segments.

leach movable .and supporting. the needles at.

tion'of action, .a dialcam-plate with cams,

one 'endand adapted'to vcontrol their direcand means forI automaticallyrackin' thel sections of the inner memberof-fthe. ial, sub-. I i

stantially as described. 4. In a circular-knittin machine, a dialcomposed of annularmem ers, 'the outer be ing, integral and fixed' and4having' thereon-v` pivotally-mounted needle-guiding members4 andtheinner 'of the'said annular members being divided'intofannular sectionsleachrnov-v able and having thereon needle-holding mem-1 j 'bersfwherebyVin the rackin' of the-needles' the' latter may be swung on t e dialmembers i c in either direction, l,means for automatic;ill racking vthe'sections ofthemner membero.

the`dial,,substantiallyasshOWn.' v

rio

ally divided into parts and means for.auto.l

maft'icall the needlY asshown. L

for automatically racking t e needles. bycon# shiftirig' the saidfpartsfor lracking .j es inleitherdirectlon, substantially 4 6.Inaknitting-machine,.adial-plate co'm5 i. .j rising a series of annularmembers,`the outerj eing fixed and dprovided with a seriesof secfaptedto engagethe needles, i, the saidlands-being pivotall .mountedmea'n's j.A tact'of such means atthe latch ends o f'lthez needles, .substantiallyas vshown. v- "j '1.7. a circular-knitting machjnepro'f' I;

vided with cylinder and Vdial knitting means,". `means for automatically'racking the ,dial-2f needles, .thesaid means comprisin j notched4giudes engaging the needles, a brac et, a .yer-

. '8S'. needle bed-containing needles-andl compris-# lv ing a fixedouter annular member and an 111-' iasff' fio ticaiiyledfusabn plunger.@been having a.. horizont thereon, a guideoperatedi by,

pattern mechanism. and. adapted tolengage the said plunger andi adjustits operative position, a series 0I levenconnections withv lthe saidnotched guides operative. byl Contact with. the plunger-lug therewithtoi swing. the

sametaraol the needles. in either direction, and` a pattern. mechanism,substantially as showin..

`8. In a eiroular-knittin .f machine, a dial supportingthe needles in teir operation andcomposed' of two annular lmembers7 the-outer integral'andfrthe inner formed ofv apluralityof parts :each: movable androvided'with needie-engaging.- means torac the dial-needles.,

and..means iorpautomatically Swingin the.

lpeer-tsy o'the innen dial= member torao the4 .l needles, substantiallyas shown-- 9. In a Acineular-knittingmachine, a dial composed: off` av'fixed outerannular member and of an innermember oi sector-like parts,

' having# thereon! means lonswingingf the limer i pla-te comprising twoannular-members, the;

outer being fixed and adapted to receive needies; andhaving'pivotally-mounted" members *therefor andI the inner composed' ofapluralityof sections movablein succession to rack the;

p needles andghaving needle-engaging means the said-y sections 'toandfro, substantially as naaste thereon', andi means for moving thesections in either-direction, substantially as shown.

12. In a circular-knitting machine, a di'al 45 eomposed'ofseparateitingportions, one bein fixe and havin thereon swinging groove arts fortheneeles and the other'portion being dividedradially into parts eachmovable andhaving needle-engaging means to swing the needles in eitherdirection to-make a rackstitcli, substantially as shown.

13. Ina circulanknittingmachine, a diallate with needles and composed?of 'twofannuarplates one integral and" the other-divided into sectorseach independently movable, a dial camplate Withcams, a plunger having alug thereon and means engaging the lug and! connected' with the-'sectorsoiithe d ial to swing'the same i'n either direction and to a degreedepending-upon the size of the lugon the plunger, substantially asshown.

14. In a knitting-machine-I a dialfplate composed o two annulan members,the inner one being radially divided into parts 'each being movableciroumferentially and having needle-engaging means and the outer onebeing ixedandE provided with swinging means to engage the needles asreoiprocated, substantially as shown.

15. In. a circular-,knitting machine, a dial comprising a fixed ring'and an inner ring composed of sections movable circumferentially insuccession,` and! means for moving shown- In testimony whereofweaffixoursignatures in presence of' two Witnesses.

WALTER; STAFFORD. RGBERT CI{BJ,ST()BH^EIL` HOL'l-,

Witnesses: WILLIAM A. BAKER,

FENIMORE Si'r'rs.

